Computing devices, software applications, storage structures, and other computing resources that make up a computer network may be discovered and the relationships therebetween may be mapped. These elements of the computer network, as well as the relationships, may be stored as configuration items in a database. The stored configuration items may later be retrieved and used to generate a visualization of a state or arrangement of these elements within the computer network. Discovering computing resource involves developing software processes that are capable of gathering the information needed for detection, classification, and/or identification of these computing resources.